It can happen to the best of us. You’re a a good person, you open doors for others, you eat clean and healthy and sleep 8 hours a night, yet still, you get sick with an illness or, BAM, an injury occurs without warning. Being sick or injured – Sucks! There is no other way to put it. You do not have to be relegated to the ole scrap heap and just hope to get better. You CAN do something and today we will explore what that may be.
First, you must understand that you may not be able to train as hard, or lift as much or run as fast. You may need to adjust your calories accordingly, as well. When you’re sick, eat the least amount possible. In fact, look at an animal when it’s sick or even a baby – they biologically reject food because they know it will not heal them. When you’re injured, eating the same amount but training with less intensity will lead to weight gain and an unhappy you.
Illness is your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right, and needs to be addressed. For example, a cold or flu like symptoms can really wreak havoc on your ability to breathe comfortably and thus, makes exercise torturous. Even walking around the house becomes an arduous task.
So, what do you do?
Step One is to find out what you are dealing with.
- Common Cold?
- Flu?
- Allergies?
- Pneumonia?
- Hay Fever?
- Something else?
Step Two is to get honest with yourself and your doctor. (I am NOT a Doctor or Surgeon)
- Don’t mess around with sickness. If your Doctor says No exercise or weightlifting, then it’s NO!!! (for now)
- You will have to experiment with what you can do, because Doctors will tell you what to avoid and to that, you need to listen.
- If you can’t lift your head off the pillow or walk around without losing wind then you aren’t going to do much else except hydrate, sleep and recover. Those are the best things you can do at this point in time. Adding the stress of exercise will only push recovery further away because your body doesn’t need extra stress right now.
- If you have the sniffles, or perhaps a scratchy throat but you do not have a fever or excessive mucus, then perhaps you can do some low intensity activities and perhaps some light movement, stretching or strength training with weights as shown below. Again, proceed with caution, please.
Step Three is determined by step two, meaning, don’t do step 3 if you haven’t done step 2.
- Mobility exercises like: Deep Breathing 1, Deep Breathing 2, Neck Nods, Thoracic Openers, Rolling, Dead Bug, Bicycle/Cross Crawl, Bridge, Rocking, Bird Dogs, Crawling , Toe Touches are my first suggestions. These will keep the brain active, proper muscles activated and strong, promote blood flow and help the lymph nodes while keeping you loose, without feeling the extra stress quite so much
- Low Intensity Aerobic or Energy Modalities like: Tai Chi, Yoga, Indian Clubs, Qi-Gong are excellent ways to get more of your body moving and still maintain your health without taxing your systems.
- Strength Training activities to consider here are Pushup, Military Press, Bodyweight Row, Kettlebell Row, Pullups, Squat, Goblet Squat, Kettlebell Swing and Turkish Get Up. These will keep you strong without adding impact or jarring forces to your body. You may need to work with less intensity, volume and density but adjust according to your technique level and overall energy. Don’t get tired exercising, while under the weather.
So, you bent over to pick up your dog and felt a ‘POP’ in the low back. Stepped in a hole gardening. Reached into the backseat of the car and heard a tearing sound in your shoulder. Or, worst of all, you find out it wasn’t something you could see or feel. Rather, something like a polyp in your colon, or portal hypertension resulting in esophageal varices (google it), that need surgery. Like in the case of 2 of my clients, where creating too much pressure in the abdomen, after surgery, can be detrimental and even life threatening.
Look, injures happen and can happen at any time. Ankles, knees, hips, low back, core, shoulders, neck, internal organs and the stuff you can’t see – It all sucks. In my experience, nothing causes depression, mood changes and general lack of enthusiasm, like being in pain or injured. And especially when it wasn’t in your control, can cause a lot of emotional pain. However, keeping lean muscle tissue intact, bones hard and joints supple are the keys to true health and can be maintained through injury.
So, what do you do?
Step One is to have an Orthopedic Doctor, Physical Therapist, Family Doctor, Surgeon, or all of them take a look
- Have they given you any restrictions? ASK them in complete detail, but always keep your mind open here because some may not have great advice and others may give you a program for you and your trainer to implement
- Some will tell you to do what you can tolerate, others may not know, so you must experiment with intelligence
- Most will tell you to get inflammation down, range of motion back and then build strength from there.
- If they tell you never do any of your favorite activities, ask for an explanation and if you’re not satisfied, seek a second opinion, realizing you might get the same answer.
Step Two is to again, get honest with yourself after consulting a pro (I am NOT a Doctor or Surgeon)
- Don’t mess around with injuries. They take longer to heal as you age and most of them linger if not properly given time to rejuvenate
- Understand that you will NOT be working at the same level of performance as before. Accept it now and the process will be easier.
- If your injury occurred during training, then that was your fault for not listening to your body. Be smarter moving forward
- If your injury occurred by accident or without you doing it, then that sucks. It’s ok to be pissed…. Ok, now let’s get to work on it.
- Is it an Upper Body Injury?
- Is it a Lower Body Injury?
- Is it an Abdominal Injury?
- Is it an Extremity Injury?
- Is it Bone?
- Is it Joint?
- Is it Muscle?
- Is it Soft Tissue?
- Can you walk without pain?
- Can you stand without pain?
- Can you sit without pain?
- Can you lay down without pain?
- What feels ok and what doesn’t?
- Again, proceed with caution, please.
Step Three is figuring out what your body can tolerate and re-building your fitness from there
- If it’s an upper body injury (depending where), you can still do most lower body work like: Kettlebell Swing, Squat, Lunges, Walking, Sprinting, Skipping, Loaded Carries. These don’t have to be with weight or hard, but any variable can be manipulated: Stance, Body Position, Speed, Tempo, Range of Motion, Plane of Motion etc.
- If it’s a lower body injury you can still do upper body work like: Pushup, Bodyweight Row and most Push/Pull exercises (Military Press/Pullups and see above). You can get in the pool and swim to work on unweighting your joints and moving more as well.
- If it’s a core, low back or abdominal injury you may need to sit in a chair and breathe deep or, if you can get on the ground and do some of the mobility exercises mentioned earlier: Deep Breathing 1, Deep Breathing 2, Neck Nods, Thoracic Openers, Rolling,
- If it’s something that’s chronic and needs to managed (rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyaglia etc.) Yogi Bair Stretchy Thingamabobber, Tai Chi, Yoga, Indian Clubs, Qi-Gong, Cycling and even Swimming can be quite therapeutic without being overtaxing.
- If it’s something where you cannot exert yourself too hard or create intra-abdominal pressure, then you need to get yourself a heart rate monitor. Heart Rate Training will determine your max heart rate, and the heart rate zone to stay in so as not to create too much blood pressure in the body. Thus, you can strength train and when your blood pressure gets too high, you stop until it comes back down to your optimal zone, still training and getting stronger with much less pressure in the body. Let the heart rate monitor tell you how you’re doing. This may mean not lifting super heavy weights or doing silly things, but you can absolutely train and get stronger with common sense and the help of a good trainer.
There you have it. There are so many ways to stay fit while being sick or injured. This information is not specific to any one person, rather, general guidelines to allow you to get started. If you need help or would like specific information regarding your issue, please contact Info@BairKnuckleStrength.com or reply in the comments below and we’ll get you the information you need to succeed.
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